Enhancing the effectiveness of political education in the Anti-Aircraft Gun Regiment 224

The Anti-Aircraft Gun Regiment 224 (Regiment for short) under the Air-Defence Division 375 of the Air-Defence and Air Force Service is tasked with managing and protecting crucial targets in the aerial and maritime zones of Central Vietnam. To successfully accomplish its mission, its Party Committee and commanders have always considered political education a focal task of routine and adopted a number of guidelines and measures for improving the effectiveness of this work.

Grasping the resolutions, directives and instructions of upper levels, directly the Party Committee of the Air-Defence Division 375, and basing on the requirements of the unit and area of operation, annually, the regiment’s party committee and party cells all issues their resolutions stipulating the goals, requirements, content and measures for political education at the unit. Sticking to the training order of the Commander of the Service and instructions of upper levels, commanders at all echelons of the regiment have developed their plans, assigned forces concrete tasks, and implemented the plans; political offices and cadres have proposed concrete measures to leadership and commanders while directly giving directions and instructions, and carrying out inspection and supervision to ensure that the work of political education is implemented effectively in a comprehensive, synchronous, focalized manner. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the work, the regiment has ordered its affiliates to make thorough preparation, review and grasp the quality of their troops; to identify the suitable topics for education for each group of troops; to set up teaching and disseminating staff; and to make lesson plans and all necessary preparations in a thorough and scientific fashion.

Law contest in Company 7 (photo: phongkhongkhongquan.vn)

During the implementation process, besides strictly abiding by the political education program of upper levels, the regiment has also actively supplemented topics in accordance with its functions and responsibilities; focused on enhancing troops’ awareness of Marxism–Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality and style, the Party’s guidelines and viewpoints, the State’s policies and laws, the resolutions and directives of upper levels and of the regiment on combat training and disciplining, the military disciplines, the unit’s rules, schemes and humbug of hostile forces, as well as our air-defence and air-force troops and military’s adversaries, etc. To make the troops deeply imbued with the content of education, the regiment has not only carried out thoroughly the forms of political education under the Regulations on Political Education in the VPA and the Vietnam Militia and Self-Defence Forces (issued in tandem with the Decision No. 438/QD-CT dated 21 March 2016 of the Chairman of the General Political Department), but also focused on propagation in the anniversaries and major political events of the Party, the State, the Military, the Service, the Division and the unit. In political education, the regiment ordered its affiliates to combine traditional education with legal education; regular education with customised education, and carry out thoroughly the work of troops’ ideology management, combat training, disciplining, and administrative management. The units have always attached importance to the combination of basic training with experience sharing and political and ideological exchange. The regiment has directed its junior units to keep contact with families and localities of troops to grasp their thoughts and wishes in order to have suitable methods of education and tighten the bonds between cadres, troops, troops’ families, units and localities.

Moreover, the regiment has stuck to the schedules for political education. Together with abiding by the Regulation on Grass-roots Democracy, the Political, Cultural and Spiritual Day, and Legal Day, the regiment has also maintained the model of “A law weekly”, organised cultural, artistic, sport activities on weekends; held contests, forums, talks, such as “Youth with the State’s law and Military disciplines”, “Youth building regularity, obeying disciplines and traffic safety rules”, “Understanding the tradition” of the unit, the Division, the Service, etc, while clearly stating plans for political education for each group of troops. Political education is carried out for officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers on a weekly basis. Every month, the regiment holds specialised briefing with selected topics relevant to the functions and responsibilities of each unit and group of troops. To facilitate its affiliates’ political education, the regiment has incorporated the program of political education in the general plan and unified the content across the whole unit; while diversifying the models of testing the political awareness.

One of the solutions for enhancing the quality of political education is that the regiment has built a good staff of disseminators at all levels. Annually, this staff is trained in the content, method and mode of education following the typical models that have been proved to be effective. As for mode of training, concentrated classes are combined with the introduction of typical models and the disseminating contests; importance has been attached to the improvement of capability of cadres, especially their working style and method, their commanding, advising and managing capabilities, measures for grasping and managing troops’ ideology and dealing with contingency situations. Emphasis placed on the exemplary role of key cadres is considered the key to the enhancement of the quality of political education. Every month, commanders all have to build up their plans for self-study and self-training. Furthermore, they also have to commit to achieving the goals of emulation drives, creating a pervasive movement and helping improve the quality of training and combat readiness for firmly protecting the aerial zone in their authority.

Attention has been paid to connecting political education with ideological work and organisational work by the regiment. Its units have focused on grasping and implementing the Resolution of the Party Central Committee’s 4th Plenum (12th tenure) on Party building and rectification, the Directive No. 5-CT/TW of the Politburo (12th tenure) on continuing to study and follow Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality and style, the Drive of “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers”, etc., with concrete targets. In particular, cadres at all echelons are required to be exemplary in terms of awareness, political steadfastness, ideology, morality, working method and style, and successfully accomplish their tasks and responsibilities. Besides, the work of emulation – commendation, drawing lessons, and multiplying role models has been conducted on a regular basis. Every month, the regiment deploys a task group to check emulation movements of its junior units to opportunely detect and resolve issues, surmount the weak points and make troops ideologically oriented.

Thanks to the strong leadership, direction of party committees and commanders at all echelons, the work of political education of the regiment has been done thoroughly and effectively with an absolute enrolment rate of 100%. All of the participants satisfied educational targets. 80% - 95% of them recorded good and very good results. Political situation of the unit always remains stable; cadres and soldiers all keep steadfast in politics and morality without degradation in political ideology, ethics and lifestyle or signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”; the total quality and combat readiness capacity have been enhanced. The regiment has earned the title of Good Training Unit for many consecutive years. In 2017, it successfully accomplished its tasks during the live-firing exercise at the National Fire Range No.1 and was awarded the “Excellent Firing Unit” Flag by the Commander of the Service.

The above-mentioned achievements were attributed to many elements, including the good implementation of political education work. These achievements make cadres and soldiers of the regiment more eager, united and determined to successfully fulfil their assigned tasks and record more good results to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding day (21 March 1958 – 21 March 2018).

100 years ago, following “Ten days that shook the world”, the Russian October Revolution resulted in the advent of the first socialist state of its kind. The struggle of Soviet people in the ensuing years and the collapse of the Soviet Union over the course of its 74-year existence have shown that seizing power is inherently difficult, but retaining it is far more difficult